Tom Hanks Shows Anti-Catholic Slant in Angels and Demons

A new television promo for Angels & Demons features actor Tom Hanks, who plays Harvard professor Robert Langdon, discussing “the 400 year myth of the Illuminati”; he says they “have come for their revenge” against the Vatican. Commenting on the video, and some recent comments by Hanks, is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:

“Tom Hanks is on record saying he doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories. Yet that hasn’t stopped him from playing the lead role in two back-to-back conspiracy tales, both of which target the Catholic Church. ‘Conspiracy theories, I think…conjured up by people who can then sell their books about conspiracy theories,’ says Hanks. People like Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons?

“Here’s more doublespeak. On Brown’s website he addresses the conspiratorial Illuminati: ‘It is historical fact that the Illuminati vowed vengeance against the Vatican in the 1600s.’ Wrong. It is an historical fact that there was no Illuminati until 1776; it folded in 1787.

“Were it not for savaging Catholicism, few would care about the duplicity of Brown and Hanks. But they are obviously not content to spin mysterious tales absent an anti-Catholic animus. That is why the Vatican denied them the opportunity to film on its grounds. It also explains the Catholic League’s on-going campaign to educate the public about their agenda.”